Redistilled whisky

The partly wicked and partly genius crew at Master of Malt are always in for a booze experiment. I’ve seen extremely hot vodka, infused gin, blend-your-own-whisky and home-made bitters in the past. Apparently they’ve now bought a small still and had the idea of redistilling well-known whiskies. Thanks for letting me taste your results, guys!

You simply take a few bottles of whisky, pour them into a small still and go ahead. The new “renewed” spirit is then brought down to its original strength. They’ve tried Talisker 10, Lagavulin 16, Ardbeg Ten, Glenfarclas Movember 2011 and Glenmorangie Nectar D’Or. I’ll try three totally different examples.

Redistilled Talisker 10 yo
(45,8%, Master of Malt 2012, experiment)

Nose: light and ethereal, as if it got shattered: a lot of the flavours are gone, but others are still present, in a sharp and focused way. Flax and seaweed are very noticeable. Bonfire as well. Lots of ashes. On top of this, quite some heady and solventy aromas, or so it seems. Something of lemon refresher. Sage too. After some time these start to dominate my perception. Mouth: rather thin and simple. Cereal notes, a hint of lemon again and a peppery touch. A faint new-makeish banana sweetness in the background. Finish: short, slightly smoky.

Nose: funny, while the Talisker still showed some typical aromas, this one would be hard to recognize. There are gas-like aromas (reminds me of some pre-war whiskies), wax and leather, pencil shavings and sour berry aromas. Again a little light-headed. Mouth: quite sweet and rather creamy now, again some berry flavours. Raisins. Evolves on brown sugar and cocoa. Finish: rather short, still sweet and fruity.

Nose: more new-makeish than the others. Lots of banana and pear aromas, some grapes and kiwi sourness. Simple but nicely fruity and more recognizable as whisky. Mouth: fruity and sweet again, same kind of jelly / fruit gum flavours. Some honey. Finish: medium long, fruity with a soft marmalade bitterness and green tea.

These redistilled whiskies share a lot of similarities with new-make spirit (I mean in general though – I haven’t actually tried new-make from these distilleries). On the other hand, they also show aromas that are linked to wood influence, which are not found in true new-make of course. That leaves us with uniquely hybrid spirits, not entirely enjoyable (on the whole a bit chemical even) but very interesting nonetheless.